Having a small safe in dorm room

<p>Mine had a small one under her bed that attached to the bed leg. It was big enough for passport, credit cards, etc, and not immediately visible to a visitor to the room. (She had a lot of other things stored under the bed.) With 4 roommates, it is hard to know who is there, and at least it would prevent a grab and run crime. It would take a little more effort to get at it, if someone knew it was there.</p>

<p>We have bought our D the $19 one from BBB but the main reason being that she needs to have her passport and other documents available 24hrs a day and a banks safety deposit box isn’t convenient in that sense. I agree though that the most important thing is to lock the dorm room door and don’t make an issue of having one. If you don’t show it off no one knows you have which again makes it less likely to be stolen.</p>

<p>S had a built-in safe his freshman year, which was nice. He hasn’t had one since & is rising senior. D has never had a aafe to date and hasn’t inquired about it. I believe she & her room mates are pretty careful about whom they let into their apartment. She is not interested in a safe and neither is S. To date, they have not had any issues with theft (except when S left his wallet & phone on the bench at the gym & went to the men’s room & surprise–they were stolen).</p>

<p>I know of a great product that I along with many of my friends used while we were in college. It is called the INPRINT and it is a Biometric safe/security device. You can store all of your valuables that you do not want to leave out for the public… or your annoying roommate that always tries to steal your stuff because the only way to get into these safes is by using the fingerprints that you register to the safes memory. The INPRINT was great and never failed me… Kept it powered by an AC cord so I could always get to it and I left the spare key in my car so only I could get to it… Mine cost about 289 but was well worth the money because I always knew my stuff would be safe.</p>

<p>These things are about 12 inches long… 11 inches wide… 7 inches high</p>

<p>Great buy… If you want your stuff protected or want to make sure your kids always have their stuff in a safe place I would highly encourage you to get the INPRINT!</p>

<p>I think having a safe would be a good idea, not necessarily because your child will be at risk for much theft (varies school to school. At my college we didn’t even lock our doors most of the time), but because it could cut down a lot on losing things. If kids put their passports, social security cards, plane tickets, medications, etc. locked away in a safe, you won’t have to worry about them calling you and telling you they can’t find them at the end of the year.</p>

<p>As a freshman my D had the one you attach to the bed. She’s on her way to her junior year and it sits at home unused.</p>

<p>ARNorth6, what keeps your INPRINT from being carted off so it can be pried open at the convenience of the thief? At the dimensions you post, it wouldn’t be very tough to make off with it.</p>

<p>Like in a previous post, my son used a locking 2 drawer file cabinet. By itself, it isn’t too much to carry but he stored books in one drawer and his valuable in another. The books made it heavy to carry (but not impossible). The idea was to prevent the casual thief. He didn’t have anything too, too valuable that he kept in his room.</p>

<p>At the parent’s orientation we were told to get a cable lock for laptops (portable and can be looped around a desk anywhere) and to just keep telling the student that they need to keep their door locked whenever they go out. The campus police also said to just leave other valuables at home.</p>

<p>This thread just reminded me…if my S wants to take his xBox we will need to get a cable loc for that as well…</p>

<p>I really think your S would be better served NOT taking his XBox (meet others, do ECs, study, etc. rather than play xbox). If you really want him to have it, remind him to keep it out of sight when he’s not using it rather than dealing with cables–from our visits to campus, very few are in use anywhere. Our kids kept their valuables out of sight & doors locked when they left–no problems at all with theft of valuables from dorm/apartment.</p>

<p>[You</a> can get a safe…](<a href=“http://xkcd.com/916/]You”>xkcd: Unpickable)</p>

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<p>I really don’t want him to have it…and after thinking about it I think the plan will be to keep it at home for the first semester and see how things work out. I remember not even having access to a TV when I was in college and I was so busy that it wasn’t an issue at all.</p>

<p>We were happy that S didn’t have any TV in his dorm room, tho there was one in the lounge but it wasn’t even on his floor. Unfortunately, his room mate & the mom bought roomie a TV that was placed in their room. Fortunately, I don’t believe it was that much of a distraction and his grades didn’t suffer. Am glad he didn’t have any gaming system, tho of course they can all play games on their computers. </p>

<p>I think a gaming system is a bad distraction, especially for young males (tho females are not immune). It tends to sap a lot of attention and energy that one would hope would be better employed doing other things while in college.</p>

<p>Your S may grumble, but stick to your guns that you’re not paying $$$$$$ for him to fritter his time & talent playing video games! It’s much easier to set the rules in the beginning instead of trying to help kids dig themselves out of a hole. The 1st term & 1st year is prime time for kids to meet others & find their niche.</p>

<p>Wouldn’t it be possible just not to bring most of those things to campus? Use your debit card for cash if more than $100 (are they really going to be lock up the difference each time they leave the room anyways?). Only a very tiny subset of kids are going to need their passport during the semester. Most meds have zero street value (though I’d lock up adderall!), and at least where we live, our credit cards are now chip encoded and need a password to work. Also for important papers, why not just keep password encoded pdf files of each and print as needed? I can’t imagine where one needs to show an original SS, lifeguard cert or bank documents.</p>

<p>We bought a small safe for our son (an international student) 5 years ago. We didn’t do so because of theft. Having one place for documents that really matter was our concern. He could have used a shoe box for this. However, in case of a fire a safe may be more useful (there actually has been a fire in one of the other dorms during his first or second year).</p>

<p>I have heard of enough students misplacing their driver’s liscenses and not being able to fly home on time because of not having proper id that I am going to have my d take her passport with her when she leaves in August. It can be kept in a separate place and she can use it instead of the DL as id to fly home with and then get a replacement DL if need be. </p>

<p>We have been debating here how to keep all such important papers together and the jury is still out on if that will be a fire proof box or a manilla folder in a desk drawer.</p>

<p>^ Why not just get her to get another DL and store it in a drawer? Say you lost one, go in and get a replacement. Then you have two! It just seems like overkill about fireproof boxes and safes. Odds of a fire in a dorm extremely low…and if so, far bigger issues than lost paperwork (which again I would argue can be saved as a pdf file).</p>

<p>It is hard to get a replacement for a lost DL when you are out of state and is cheaper to take the passport that you already have then to buy a second DL that is not needed at that point.</p>

<p>In our state you can get a state photo ID, which works equally as well as a driver’s license for identification. That’s what my son took for back-up ID in case of loss of DL.</p>

<p>My son has needed his original social security card for each of the 3 jobs he has gotten on campus. I think that’s overkill. He showed it for the first job, so why do they keep needing to see it? It’s beyond me. Anyway, when he needed it I mailed it to him, then he mailed it back. No need to find a hiding place for it.</p>

<p>Prescribed ADHD meds are often best kept in a dorm room safe. I know doctors who have recommended that students get a safe for just that reason.</p>